The Young Leadership Program: Social Democracy Workshop in Jenin, 3rd to the 6th of March 2018

On the 3rd to the 6th of March, the Young Leadership program hosted a workshop devoted to thoughts on social democracy. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) together with our partners, the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), organized the four-day event.

From the 3rd to the 6th of March, participants and coordinators met in Jenin to exchange insights and ideas on the development, function and reality of social democracy, both as a concept and as a lived experience. The sessions were introduced with a welcome address by the organizers and an introductory talk by guest lecturer Prof. Dr.Ayman Yousef on the components of democracy. Building on this foundation, the group entered a workshop on modern democracy with FES organizer, Nidal Alayasa, on the core values of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The participants continued with their endeavor of learning about social democracy by going into the history of democratic political theory, discussing theorists through the ages from Hobbs to Rawls.

Day three shifted the focus onto an intercultural approach to democracy and to the current situation in Palestine, as well as imminent possibilities and prospects. Employing the discussions of the past three days, the participants articulated both their opinions on current politics in Palestine as well as their hopes for the future.